Study Shows Children Reported Abused and Neglected are 67 Times more likely to be Arrested as Pre-Teens

June 19, 1997,Press Conference, Washington, DC--Children reported abused and neglected were 67 times more likely to be arrested between the ages of 9 and 12 than other children, according to a study recently conducted in Sacramento County, California. The Sacramento study indicates "a smoking gun connection" between child abuse and neglect and later delinquent behavior, said Michael Petit, deputy director of the Child Welfare League of America. CWLA called on the Administration and Congress to spend less on the construction of juvenile prisons and more to combat abuse and neglect and divert at-risk children from crime.

"Adult prisons are filled with victims of child abuse and neglect," Petit said. "The child abuse connection is chillingly obvious in the case of death row inmates. If we help abused and neglected youngsters whose lives contain certain risk predictors -- an incarcerated parent, serious mental health problems, substance abuse in the home, early trouble in school and inadequate housing -- we can save kids, reduce or prevent later crime and avoid spending millions or perhaps billions in judicial, prison and other costs. With early intervention and support it is absolutely possible to prevent violence."

Buffalo Police Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, San Diego Police Chief Gerald R. Sanders and Sanford Newman, president of FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS, a national organization of police leaders, prosecutors and crime survivors, joined Petit in calling for increased investment in proven crime-prevention programs. They pointed to other studies showing that America's most powerful weapons against crime are the proven investments that get kids off to the right start.

"If Congress is serious about fighting crime, it won't pretend that just building more jails is going to solve the problem," said Kerlikowske. "Those of us on the front lines know we'll win the war on crime when Congress boosts investment in early childhood programs and Head Start, health care for kids, after-school and mentoring and recreational programs. We'll win the war on crime when we invest tax dollars in America's most vulnerable kids, instead of waiting until they become America's most wanted adults."

The Sacramento study was conducted by CWLA and public and private county agencies in an effort to identify and help youngsters at highest risk of serious juvenile and adult criminal behavior. Results of the study showed that 9- to 12-year-olds who were reported as abused or neglected were 67 times more likely to be arrested for delinquent behavior than were children of the same ages who had not been reported as abused or neglected. It is possible that this dramatic 6,700 percent increase in the likelihood of arrest for abused and neglected children actually understates the problem, since some of the arrested children may have been victims of unreported abuse or neglect.

• In addition, the study found the following:
  Children reported abused or neglected made up fully half of kids arrested between the ages of 9 and 12 -- even though they made up just 1.4 percent of the total population. 
  
  
•  successful early intervention program of comprehensive services could save taxpayers more than $400,000 per child in out-of-home placement, law enforcement and incarceration costs. This figure is based on the difference between the $471,000 cost for a "typical" youth offender between ages 9 and 12 and the $40,000 cost for five years of intensive intervention with one at-risk family in Sacramento County's model program, which is now being implemented.

Today's presentation was sponsored by CWLA, with 900 member agencies the country's largest association of organizations that directly assist abused and neglected children and their families, and FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS. Both organizations expressed support for federal legislation that includes investments in early intervention and prevention programs for at-risk children and youth. CWLA vigorously opposes proposed legislation that would spend billions of dollars prosecuting juveniles and adults and building more prisons for teenage offenders but comparatively little money for proven early intervention and prevention programs.

"This study adds to the proof that wait-for-the-crime approaches ignore our most powerful anti-crime weapons and force us to fight crime with one hand tied behind our backs," said FIGHT CRIME's Newman. "Those who spend every day in the trenches fighting crime are counting on Congress to support the right-start programs for kids proven to prevent crime and help keep Americans safe."

CWLA also emphasized that, in addition to significant funding for targeted community initiatives, states should continue to uphold legal prohibitions against housing juvenile and adult offenders in the same facilities, remove status offenders and abused and neglected children from secure facilities, and address the disproportionate confinement of minority youth.